Thursday, March 25, 2010

Buying the next park on Capitol Hill: Federal and Republican Acquisition

As you may know, the Parks Dept. has been working to acquire the empty lot at Federal and Republican in order develop it as a park. The site is near Lowell Elementary and has been empty for at least two years - it was cleared in expectation of a townhouse development that never occurred. The acquisition of Federal and Republican by Parks Dept. will go forward as long as it is approved by the City Council. The bill for the proposed acquisition will go to a vote in the full City Council session on Monday, March 29 at 2 p.m (you can see the meeting agenda here).

The Open Space Committee of the Capitol Hill Community Council/Unpaving Paradise supports the acquisition of this site for the following reasons:

The site is at a good location on a quiet residential street that is near the main thoroughfare of Broadway Ave. E.

The site is 12,000 sq.ft., larger even than the 9,600 sq.ft. park and P-Patch to be at John and Summit.

The site is flat, accessible, with good sun exposure, and is located where there are “eyes on the park” in order to discourage inappropriate activities.

We encourage community members to either attend the City Council meeting on Monday to give public comment or send emails encouraging City Council to pass this measure and authorize the purchase of the land at Federal and Republican. Public comment will take place during the first 15 minutes of the City Council meeting; you may want to come early in order to sign up for 2 minute slot to speak.